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William H. Peterson | |
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| Born | (1921-02-26)February 26, 1921 |
| Died | (2012-06-19)June 19, 2012 |
William Herbert Peterson (February 26, 1921 – June 2012) was an American economist who wrote on the insights ofLudwig von Mises through teaching, writing, and speaking on the relationship between free enterprise and human liberty.[1]
Peterson earned a B.S. (1943) and Ph.D. (1952) degrees in economics fromNew York University[1] and an M.S. degree fromColumbia University (1948). DuringWorld War II, he also studied at theHarvard Business School under Navy sponsorship and attended a summer leave seminar atOxford University.
During his academic career, Peterson served as assistant to the dean, associate professor, and professor of economics in the Graduate School of Business Administration atNew York University, where he was a colleague and friend ofLudwig von Mises, John David Campbell, professor of American business in the American Graduate School of International Management in Arizona, Scott L. Probasco. Jr., professor of free enterprise and director, Center for Economic Education, theUniversity of Tennessee at Chattanooga; Distinguished Burrows T. and Mabel L. Lundy Emeritus Professor of Business Philosophy atCampbell University in North Carolina, and a senior fellow atThe Heritage Foundation, where he served as adjunct scholar.[1]
His experience in business and government included service as Economist and Assistant to the Chairman of the Finance Committee of theUnited States Steel Corporation, Senior Economic Advisor to theUnited States Department of Commerce, and economics speechwriter on the campaign staff ofRichard Nixon. Peterson has served as a consultant forGeneral Electric,General Motors, Republic of the Ivory Coast,Republic of South Vietnam,Time Magazine,Union Carbide, Manufacturers-Hanover Trust, andSouthern Company, and other companies.
In January 1979, Peterson was appointed to be a member of the Federal Drafting Committee of the National Tax Limitation Committee. Led by Nobel Laureate economistMilton Friedman, this committee composed a draft of a constitutional amendment to limit the growth of the Federal budget.
In 1982, Peterson was sponsored by theU.S. Information Agency to lecture onsupply-side economics inRomania,East Germany,Ireland andCanada. For this effort, he won a letter of commendation from PresidentRonald Reagan.
In 1961, the McKinsey Foundation awarded first prize to Peterson for the best article of the year, "The Case for a North American Common Market," published in Indiana University'sBusiness Horizons. In 1981, the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge gave Dr. Peterson the Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education. In 1989, theAssociation of Private Enterprise Education named Dr. Peterson as Distinguished Scholar. In 1990, the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge awarded him the George Washington Medal of Honor. In 1991 he was awarded an honorary degree byUniversidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. In 1993,Campbell University conferred on him the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching.
In 2005, Peterson was awarded the Gary G. Schlarbaum Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Cause of Human Liberty, awarded by theLudwig von Mises Institute where he was an adjunct scholar.
Peterson published articles in theHarvard Business Review,The Freeman,The Free Market,Washington Times,Monthly Labor Review,The Christian Science Monitor,New York Times,Dun's Review,Business Week,Journal of Business,Journal of Economic Literature, Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Tokyo),Die 24t,Farmand (Oslo),Australian (Sydney),Sunday Times (London), and others. He wrote daily articles onMises.org, and is the author of two tributes to Ludwig von Mises: "Thoughts and Memories" and "Mises: A Turning Point".
For fourteen years, he wrote a regular column for theWall Street Journal entitled "Reading for Business." Apart from authoring monographs and books includingThe Great Farm Problem (1959), he contributed entries to McGraw-Hill'sEncyclopedia of Economics (1982, 1992). He has appeared as a guest commentator on the national PBS-TV show,Nightly Business Report. He was a member of the "Brain Trust" contributing a column to theInvestor's Business Daily.
Peterson generally wrote about economics, education, and politics. He praised capitalism quite often and stressed its necessity for a thriving society, such as in hisThe Washington Times article "Capitalism Appraised".[2] Peterson also voiced his concern for present-day education standards in writings such as his article inThe Free Market titled"School Values, Public and Private", where he states that "America's worry over a general moral erosion in politics and society has coincided with ever-more draconian federal control over education." Many of his writings overlapped in his topics of interest, mixing education with government and relating government to economics and capitalism.
Peterson lectured at the University of the Americas (Mexico City),Harvard University,Princeton University,University of Arizona,University of Connecticut,University of Virginia,Florida State University, Chattanooga State, Northwood Institute, Emory and Henry College, Peace College, Lenoir-Rhyne College,Wellesley College,University of New Hampshire, and others, including various professional and trade associations. Many of his speeches discussed topics regarding the Austrian school of economics, following the ideas of Mises.
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